Kingsley searches for angels in Siberian rail drama

BERLIN (Reuters) - To play an evil-doer convincingly, Ben
Kingsley says, you must first understand the pain that turned
that person into what they are.

Kingsley stars as a Ilya Grinko, a corrupt Russian
policeman in U.S. director Brad Anderson's new film
"TransSiberian," a Hitchcock-inspired thriller about an
American couple's perilous voyage of discovery across the
Trans-Siberian railroad.

Kingsley, who in recent years has played a series of movie
villains in films ranging from "Sexy Beast" to "Death and the
Maiden," said on Saturday that what attracted him to the parts
was the challenge of uncovering the emotional core of each one.

"What sustained my performance in 'Sexy Beast' was my
decision that Don Logan was probably an abused child," he told
a news conference at the Berlin film festival.

"What I found so poignant and valuable in building Grinko
was the loss of his son."

"It's more a question of 'How do you live with your
psychological inheritance?' rather than you decide to be bad. I
tried to portray Grinko as having no choice," he added.

"It's just circumstance which will bring the good angel or
the bad angel out of each one of us."

U.S. actor Woody Harrelson and Britain's Emily Mortimer
play the pair that set off from Beijing hoping to inject new
life into their marriage but are instead embroiled in a fight
for their lives after making friends with the wrong people en
route.
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